Did Gary Condit make mistakes? Possibly, the most misused word in the
English language besides "change" is the word "mistake."
Everything these days seems to be a "mistake." After all, everybody
makes them. They can't be helped. So, by calling every transgression a
"mistake," those engaged in all manner of egregious behavior
stand ready to beg the public's forgiveness when they get caught. It is
interesting just how willing the public is to equate the word "mistake"
with the word "crime."

The latest round of activities involving a certain Congressman caught
with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar has resulted in his admission
to making "mistakes." It is as though this is explanation enough
and since everyone makes a mistake every now and then, we should just
move on and say "there but by the grace of God, go I." The members
of the media are quick to point out that "mistakes" were made
and it is time to "move on." You get to move on after a mistake.

I believe that there should be more of a distinction between a mistake
and a crime, or a mistake and a lie, or a mistake and a calculated act.
A mistake is when you put on the wrong cufflink when going out. A mistake
is when you forget to carry the 1, adding numbers together. A mistake
is when you call someone from your past the wrong name, or show up to
the movie an hour before it starts. A mistake is when you answer the door
for the guy selling magazine subscriptions.

It is not a mistake when you lie to the police during a missing person
investigation. It is not a mistake when you lie in court. It is not a
mistake when you lie to the American people on national television. It
is not a mistake when you take money for an action and then perform the
action for which you took the money. It is not a mistake when someone
puts $400,000 in an offshore bank account in your name in exchange for
influencing your brother in law. It is not a mistake when you drive off
with furniture that doesn't belong to you. It is not a mistake when you
put a degree you don't have on your resume. It is not a mistake when you
cheat on your wife, or rather; the act is not a mistake. The decision
probably was. A mistake is an error, not an offense. A mistake is a blunder,
not a transgression. A mistake is a gaffe, not a felony. Everyone makes
mistakes, everyone doesn't commit felonies. Felons, at least the ones
who are caught shouldn't get to "move on."

While changing the offending cufflink corrects the mistake, giving back
the money does not erase the bank robbery. It is amazing to me that journalists,
people who go to school in order to learn the intricacy of language and
the nuance of different words and phrases, are the worst offenders. What
is even more curious is their uneven application of this knowledge.....mistakes,
if you will. I distinctly remember that Newt Gingrich committed sins and
transgressions against his first wife, while President Clinton and Congressman
Condit made mistakes. I may be mistaken about this, but on the surface,
this seems less a mistake than a calculated effort to lessen one person's
complicity and heighten another's in an instance of the same type of lapsed
behavior. Could it be....bias?

As a people, our standards of education have been plunging like a barrel
over a waterfall. As a result, we must be on the alert for the subtle
use of language employed by reporters and pundits in the media to mislead
us into thinking one man's actions are somehow less egregious an offense
than another's simply because the offender shares the journalist's ideology.
The myth of objective reporting has served the media well as they have
pointed the masses towards the idea of bigger and more intrusive government
being the good and limited government being the foundation of the extreme.
While this may not be a crime, it has certainly not been a mistake. Calculated
effort on the part of a malevolent force only becomes a mistake when they
are caught.

The idea of a mistake implies an accidental outcome of an action or an
unintentional error. Things done on purpose where the outcome can be expected
as a result of the action are not mistakes, and they don't miraculously
become mistakes when the perpetrator is found out. A crime on the other
hand is an intentional act of known consequence. A mistake is an innocent
act that results in error. A crime is an immoral act that results in damage
to a person, society or property. So lets stop making excuses for lawlessness
and immorality by defining immoral and criminal activity as mistakes.

Phillip J Hubbell is the author of Write Winger: Solutions for the
Politically Oblique! Available from www.booklocker.com.

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Different
party, different standards By Steven Martinovich (August 23, 1999)
Questions about George W. Bush's drug use are all well and good, says
Steve Martinovich, but these questions are different